He’s big! Primary school rugby hulk .
This 13-year-old primary school learner was hard to miss as the biggest player in his age group at Craven Week
LOOSE-HEAD props are usually sturdy fellows, shoring up the scrum with their bulk in a bid to buckle the opposition. So it’s not surprising that this guy sets the scale at a hefty 100kg – or that his nickname was Beast at his old school and he’s now named Oshkosh, after those big trucks. What is surprising is that Hanru van Vreden has just turned 13 – and that he’s a staggering 70kg heavier than the smallest player at this year’s Under-13 Craven Week tournament in Bloemfontein.
Like a modern-day Os du Randt, Hanru doesn’t just make the opposition suffer in the scrum – he’s also a quick defender and is good at running with the ball.
The Grade 7 learner at Hermanus Primary School saw to it that Boland’s forwards spent most of the tournament on the front foot. “We had a lekker time being the boss of the scrums,” he recalls with a grin.
Just more than a year ago Hanru moved with his parents, Martin and Elna, and older sister, Monique, from Gauteng to Fisherhaven near Hermanus in the Western Cape. And he’s become something of a sensation in his new hometown.
“People probably think we’re feeding him something,” Elna quips about her son’s size. “But it’s just in his genes.”
MARTIN is a big guy too, tipping the scales at about 130kg, and Elna comes from a family of big people – her father and brothers were all rugby players. So what does a growing young scrum machine eat to stay so strong?
Hanru usually has eggs and bread for breakfast and a cheese or meat sandwich for lunch. He’ll really tuck in at supper time and loves a braai, although he also enjoys seafood such as prawns and calamari.
“With a little steak on the side,” teases his father, who jokingly classifies chicken and fish as vegetables.
Elna recently took Hanru – who at 1,73m is nearly 20cm taller than the average height for his age – to a paediatric cardiologist to make sure he wasn’t growing too fast.
The doctor did a heart ultrasound as well as a kidney examination and other tests and gave Hanru a clean bill of health. “The feedback was that he’s fighting fit,” Elna says.
She’s often on the sidelines cheering on her son when he plays rugby. She just hopes Hanru doesn’t hurt one of the other kids by accident.
But she and her husband have yet to be confronted by other parents about their son’s size advantage. “He plays hard, not aggressively,” Elna says.
Hanru says if he were older he would have loved to have played in the scrum with Steven Kitshoff, the Bok and Stormers’ loose-head prop.
For now though he has to be content with watching him on TV – and dreaming of the future.
Talent scouts have already marked Hanru as a player to watch and his parents have received several bursary offers from top rugby-playing high schools.
They’re weighing their options and for now Hanru is concentrating on finishing primary school, playing with his collection of model cars, canoeing on the lagoon and riding his bike.
There’s more to life than crouch! bind! set! after all.